I started my business because I wanted to change things. A few years ago I had a terrible experience buying tickets on eBay for an American football match. It cost over £1,000 for four tickets with no guarantee they were legitimate and no guarantee that we could sit together.
That's when I knew that there must be a better way to let fans trade tickets in a safe and secure way with real market pricing power. With Seatwave, that's exactly what we set out to do.
I might have been the thousandth person to think about doing something similar but the difference was that I did something about it.
An entrepreneur (far too fancy a word if you ask me) is someone that will make it happen, and be willing to go for an opportunity when they spot one. Successful business starters get a bee in their bonnets and won't let up until they find a solution. Dissatisfaction is the greatest driver of innovation. But innovation isn't enough.
I knew we were on to something when we got a visceral reaction from the live events industry who were suddenly shaken out of their comfort zone. Many did everything they could to ensure we'd fail. We ignored this reaction, often to our peril. As my old football coach used to say you must have 'intestinal fortitude' to be successful.
Entrepreneurs make things bigger, faster and smarter and in doing so they provide jobs, create wealth and drive growth. Our economy depends on new businesses. Micro-businesses with fewer than ten employees generate a fifth of private sector turnover and employ a fifth of all UK workers.
So those who spot opportunities in the market but don't do anything about it should be urged to take the first step and turn those ideas that they are sitting on into a reality.
But disruption and controversy is something we instinctively fear and many try to suppress, so we have a duty to back the innovators.
Given the current climate of high youth unemployment, limited job prospects for graduates and a stagnant economy there is a strong case to be made for encouraging young people to strike out on their own.
The days of going to school so you can 'find a good profession' are behind us -- in this world the burden falls on all of us to create our way. At that same time, those who have created something have an additional responsibility to help those who are just starting out.
Fortune does favour the bold and there is no time like now to go and create an opportunity for yourself. Who knows what you could do?
Just look at Mike Lynch who recently sold his business Autonomy to HP for $11.7 billion, or Iain Dodsworth who sold Tweetdeck to Twitter after just three years for £25 million. The UK has the brains and wherewithall to create great companies, we just have to believe in one another and get on with it.
The next Facebook or Google won't happen overnight, but what we can do is take advantage of opportunities like MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival, where Britain's most innovative minds are gathered in one place to share ideas and push their businesses and expectations forward.
My view is that initiatives like MADE are great because they encourage entrepreneurs to think differently and lower the psychological barriers to action. The festival aims to instill a disruptive mindset and encourage entrepreneurs to make pioneering business decisions.
If you're really passionate, if you feel like you can't not do it, if you wake up every morning thinking I have to do this, then my advice is to go and do it. Really focus on the idea and then go and execute it.
I genuinely believe that the opportunity is there right now for people with bright ideas and a great work ethic to do something new, be disruptive and change a market.